500 Days of Reed
by kamywho
Summary: This is the story of boy meets boy. But before they do, you must know upfront that this is not a love story. Reed/Shane from CP Coulter's Dalton. Based on the film 500 Days of Summer.


This is the story of boy meets boy. The boy, Shane Anderson of Westerville, Ohio grew up believing that he'd never be truly happy until the day he met _The One. _This belief grew from his early teenage years, after exposure to many female friends and their notorious romance novels.

The other boy, Reed Van Kamp of New York, New York grew up believing the exact opposite. Since his parents divorce, he'd learn to love only three things. The first being the ability to create beautiful pictures on nothing but a canvas and some paints. The second was his strawberry-blond curly hair. And the third was how easily he could snip a couple inches off and feel nothing; despite his utter lack of coordination and his mother's disapproval.

This is a story of boy meets boy. But before they do, you must know up front, that is not a love story.

* * *

(240)

"Hello? Shane?"

"Blaine, you need to get over here."

"Wes, what are you doing at Shane's place? It's," Blaine glanced at the clock. 12:18. "It's 12:18. What's going on?"

"It's Shane. He's sort of. Well," something shattered in the background. "He's turned to the plates again."

Blaine sighed, but sat up in bed. "I'm on my way. Make sure he doesn't do anything stupid."

"Wait, Blaine!" Wes said loudly, just before the line went dead.

"Yes, Wesley?" Blaine said as calmly as he could.

"Bring Kurt."

"Fine. But you're going to have to deal with his wrath," and with that, Blaine hung up. "Kurt," he whispered, shaking his boyfriend gently. "Kurt, I need you to wake up. Shane needs us." A few moments later, the brunet woke up. After refusing to leave the apartment in pyjamas, he quickly changed and they were out the door.

In the elevator, Kurt hunched over and buried his head on Blaine's shoulder. "Wes and your brother are going to be ordering a lot of grande nonfat mochas in their future."

"I know, dear." Blaine patted Kurt's waist, leading him out of the elevator.

"As in, _a lot _of grande nonfat mochas," Kurt mumbled.

* * *

Blaine and Kurt arrived at Shane's apartment, and Dwight opened the door.

"I'm aware that Wes called you two over here. Shane's behaviour could be a result of some bad spirits. I'm going back to bed now, but if you need salt or amulets or anything of the like, just knock," Dwight pulled the door open further to let them in, and then scurried back to his room. Wes' head popped out from the kitchen down the corridor.

"Sorry, Kurt. I know you're really into beauty sleep. I just didn't know who else to call."

Kurt only exhaled loudly. "Where is he, Wesley?"

The sound of another plate shattering echoed through the hall. Kurt made a beeline towards the kitchen. Blaine followed suite after closing the door behind him.

"Shane. Anderson."

Shane froze, about to break a wine glass against the kitchen counter. "Oh, Kurt. Um, what are you doing here?"

_Getting myself some free coffees,_ Kurt thought, but stopped himself. "I'm here to help, Shane."

"How are you going to help me?"

"First of all, put the wine glass down. _Without _breaking it," Kurt instructed. Shane obliged. "Good. Now, come and sit." Kurt grabbed Shane by the wrist and dragged him to the sofa beside Wes. He and Blaine sat adjacent from them. Blaine handed him a glass of water.

"Drink this, Shane."

"What is it?" Wes asked and Shane drank.

"Vodka," Blaine answered with a straight face. Shane almost gagged.

"Sorry, you got dragged out here, Kurt," Shane offered.

"Don't worry about it. You can start on your road to forgiveness tomorrow morning at eight sharp. Grande nonfat mocha. Now start from the beginning. What happened?"

Shane sighed. "We spent the whole day together We met for coffee this morning, we went to see a movie, we took a walk through the park and we went to that record store on 18th," he paused and looked at the three of them. "I thought it was a great day."

"What happened?" Blaine and Kurt said simultaneously

* * *

"_Um, I'll just order both the blueberry and the buttermilk, thanks," Shane smiled as he handed the waitress his menu. He turned to Reed. "Gosh, I haven't had breakfast for dinner in so long. It's one of the best things ever created, food wise."_

"_I think we should stop seeing each other," Reed said in the smallest of voices._

* * *

"Just like that?" Blaine asked. Kurt nudged him, signaling him to stop talking.

Kurt averted his gaze to Shane. "Just like that?"

"Just. Like. That," Shane sighed.

"Did he say why?" Kurt asked, silencing Wes from asking by raising a finger.

* * *

"_This, this thing that we're doing. You and me. Is this even normal?" Reed asked._

_Shane leaned forward, reaching his hands to hold Reed's. Reed only pulled away. "What…what do you mean 'Is this normal'? I'm happy. You're happy. Isn't that normal enough for you?" he paused. "You _are _happy, aren't you?" _

"_You're happy?!" Reed exclaimed._

"_So you're not happy?" Shane asked, confused. _

"_We argue all the time!" Reed sighed. _

"_That is so not true!" Shane countered._

* * *

Blaine shifted on the sofa, and brought his hand out to suggest, "Well maybe, maybe he was just in a bad mood."

"A hormonal thing?" Wes added to Blaine's theory. The two best friends nodded.

"P.M.S.?" Kurt voiced his opinion.

"What do you know about P.M.S.?" Wes asked the brunet.

"More than you do, Wesley," he snapped.

"Oh, snap," Blaine teased.

Kurt turned his attention back to Shane. "Please, continue."

* * *

"_I mean," Reed squirmed in his seat. "This can't be a complete surprise to you. We've been like June and Wilbur for _months_ now!" _

"_Reed, June stabbed Wilbur ten times with a boning knife. I'll admit, we've had out disagreements here and there, but I can't say that I'm June," Shane tried to reason._

"I'm_ June," Reed corrected. _

_Shane threw his hands up in the air. "So _I'm_ Wilbur?!" _

_Then, the waitress came back with their orders. The two stopped their discussion momentarily as she set their food down and nodded thanks when she offered a far too cheery "Enjoy!" _

_Reed pressed his hands down on the seat and inched closer to the table. "You know what?" he started, significantly calmer. "Let's just eat and we'll talk about all of this later. I'm so hungry, aren't you?" He began to cut through his pancakes. Shane just stared at him. "I can't agree with you more on the whole breakfast for dinner thing. Isn't this delicious?" He said as he had a few bites. Shane hadn't touched his food. Reed drank his orange juice and leaned back against the booth seat. "What's the matter?" he asked innocently. Shane exhaled slowly, as if to calm him down. Then, he stood up and began to walk away. _

"_Shane, don't go, please. Shane, you're still my best––"_

* * *

"Oh my God," Kurt said, speechless.

"That's rough," Wes said as he patted Shane's back.

"Well, it's just Reed," Blaine voiced aloud.

Wes and Kurt gave him matching looks as if to say. _Not Helping! _

"I think I'm going to be sick," Shane said, leaning sideways onto Wes.

"Oh, no. No, you're not," Wes said, visibly worried. He gently pushed Shane back to sit upright.

"You're going to be fine," Kurt tried to assure him. "You'll find someone."

"And hey," Blaine piped in, "There's plenty of other fish in the sea."

"No, there aren't," Shane deadpanned.

"Shane," Wes started.

"I've found my fish, guys. Reed was _my_ fish. Dammit, he _is _my fish." He held his head in his hands, "Reed's my fish. There can't be anyone else."

Blaine, Wes and Kurt all exchanged concerned glances.

* * *

(84)

Shane sat down across from Dwight, their coffees in hand.

"I've gotta tell you something," Shane said, giddy.

"Please don't tell me horrible spirits are making you extremely excited this morning," Dwight drawled, mixing in cream and sugar into his mug.

"I'm in love with Reed," Shane breathed out.

"Shane, what's possessed you to think so? You can tell me. I can help you," Dwight said, suddenly concerned. He was already feeling for his emergency salt in his pocket.

"Keep the salt in your pants, Houston!" Shane said, almost smacking Dwight's head. "I'm just in love with him."

"For real?" Dwight asked, still doubtful.

Shane paused, zoning out for a moment. "I love his soft curls. I love it when he blushes and gets all flustered. I love how he's always clumsy. I love how he'll get so into his art that he won't even noticed he's got paint all over him. I love how he just started wearing my clothes one day. I love his laugh," he paused and looked back at Dwight. "And I love how whenever I look at him, I say to myself, 'Hey, he could be the one.'"

"Keep this," Dwight said, reaching into his pocket. He pulled out a tiny sack of salt. "Just in case."

* * *

"Now, while Katherine's on maternity leave, we're going to need to change up the class schedules around here," Adison said, motioning to the whiteboard behind her. "Shane, you're going to have to cover all of Kathy's morning and 4 o'clock jazz classes," she said as she tied her ginger hair in a topknot.

Shane nodded, not really paying attention to the company meeting. He liked the idea, though, that soon Katherine and David would have a little one to waltz around with in their living room.

"Moving on, Dianna will be joining Jake in the partner ballroom classes. Di, I had to tweak the scheduling just a smidge, but with most of the newer students in your intro classes, I don't think many people will mind," she paused, looking at the petite brunette. Said brunette was almost asleep. "Di," she snapped her fingers in her direction. Shane nudged her elbow.

"What?!" she exclaimed, bolting to sit upright and suddenly awake. "Sorry. Sorry, yeah. New intro class times and more ballrooms for me; got it."

"Congratulations, you've learned to listen while half asleep," Adison said sarcastically as she scribbled in Dianna's name under all the Partner Ballroom sessions. "Okay; so Nat, you're going to be covering a couple of Shane's––" there was a sudden squeak that came from the lobby, followed by the sound of several heavy items falling to the ground. Adison sighed impatiently. "What the frick was that? Hold on," she said as she quickly pushed herself out of her chair and went out into the hall, her ponytail sashaying back in forth with every step.

"Oh, my goodness!" Adison could be heard skidding to a stop. "Are you alright? Here, let me help you!"

"Thanks," a small voice replied. Male. Unrecognizable. "I'm fine, really. Just lost my balance, that's all."

Out of curiousity, the other four dancers peeked out of the staff room. All four of them popped their heads out on top of each other. (Shane being on top, followed by Jake, then Nat and finally Dianna at the bottom). What they saw was a rather vertically challenged man, around their age, with strawberry-blond curly hair. He also had a Band-Aid on the back of his hand, but Shane was probably the only one who noticed. Around the stranger and Adison were several fallen paint cans and containers of various sized paintbrushes. What was a painter doing at their dance studio?

This new person in their lobby intrigued Shane. He leaned lower onto Jake, and whispered, "Who is that?" Jake, surprised by Shane fell onto Nat. Who fell onto Dianna. Who screamed and collapsed onto the floor. Adison turned her attention away from helping Reed to face the staff room.

"You guys! Get up! Help Di up! She's so small, don't just squash her!" After carefully helping each other come up to standing, Adison continued. "Guys, this is Reed. Reed, this is Dianna, Nat, Jake and Shane. Reed's from…"

"Er, 5th and 94th?" Reed said. As if they weren't already in the city.

Adison blushed in embarrassment. "Right, Reed's from here. He's painting the new mural for the entrance."

The rest of the company said hello and exchanged other pleasantries before going back into the staff room. Shane was done for the day, and passed Reed on his way out. Before he left, he tapped the blond on the shoulder. Reed was obviously shocked because he threw his paintbrush in the air as soon as Shane touched him.

"Woah, sorry!" Shane said, picking up Reed's paintbrush. "I didn't mean to scare you, there."

Reed answered, his face slightly flushed. "Don't worry about it, wasn't expecting you. That's all."

"Well, anyway," he chuckled. "I'm off. Be careful on your long a treacherous journey fifty blocks uptown," he winked, referencing Adison's mistake from earlier. Reed only smiled in response.

As Shane walked out of the studio, he couldn't help but think that Reed was the most beautiful being he'd ever laid eyes on.

**Ever.**


End file.
